Dolphin or Konqueror?

Dolphin is the file management application of Plasma Workspace. It is designed to be simple to use, yet powerful.

Konqueror was the default file manager in KDE 2 and 3, and is still available for those who prefer its interface. It is a web browser, a file manager, media viewer and more. For file management it uses the Dolphin KPart, and so has all of the functionality of Dolphin.

發掘 Dolphin

介紹 Dolphin

To open a file, or go to a folder just click on it. (This can be changed to double-click in System Settings -> Desktop Behavior -> Workspace or in System Settings -> Input Devices -> Mouse section for older versions of System Settings)

Tabs: Dolphin supports tabbed browsing. A new tab can be opened for example from File -> New Tab (if you have enabled menu bar), by Ctrl + T or by middle mouse click on folder icon and navigation buttons.

Note

Starting from KDE 4.7, Dolphin's menu bar is hidden, but easy to reach and restore. If you prefer menu bar to be present, you can enable it by selecting Control -> Show Menubar or pressing Ctrl + M.

The Interface

Location Bar

Dolphin integrates a new concept to use the location bar in a faster and more precise way: therefore a breadcrumb location bar is used. Instead of displaying the complete path only the navigation points starting from one of the places are displayed as buttons. By clicking one of these buttons you navigate directly to this folder. In this way you can reach a parent folder from a sub folder in a very quick way.

There is also a classical location bar which displays the complete path. To use this style you can right click on the Location Bar and select Show Full Path. If you want the Location bar to become editable, trigger the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L or select Control -> Location Bar -> Editable Location . By clicking on the free space next to the last displayed folder in the breadcrumb style you can switch to an editable Location Bar as well. If the editable style is selected a checkmark is displayed at the end of the location bar. This checkmark is a button which can be used to change back to the breadcrumb style. Of course menu and keyboard shortcut can be used, too.

Split View

Dolphin offers the possibility to split the current folder view so that two folder views are displayed next to each other as known from Midnight Commander, or Krusader. This is a very comfortable view to copy or move files from one folder to another.

You can split the view by clicking on Split in the tool bar or, if you have enabled menu bar, View -> Split (keyboard shortcut F3). To change back to only one folder view you can click on Close or just press F3 again. The symbol will show you which view will be closed. Depending on the currently active view the minus sign will be shown in the left or right part of the symbol. The active view will be closed. This is important to know if you want to use the keyboard shortcut. There is also a button for splitting and closing the view situated in the toolbar. This button displays the minus symbol as well, so it is easy to know which view would be closed.

Of course each view has its own location bar and each view can use a different view mode.

Sorting Files

By default, the files in the currently displayed folder are sorted in ascending alphabetical order. However, this can be changed by selecting Control -> Sort by.

Files may be sorted by the following attributes

Name

Size

Date

Permissions

Owner

Group

Type

Link Destination

Path

The sorting method can be changed by selecting Control -> Sort by -> Ascending, Control -> Sort by -> Descending or Control -> Sort by -> Folders First.

View Mode

Dolphin features three different folder view modes:

Icons shows each file or folder as an icon with its name

Compact is the same as icons, but in a more compact form, allowing more folders and files to be displayed at once

Details presents a list of files and folders, giving information on each, including but not limited to size and date

The mode can be changed from within Dolphin

Select View Mode from the View menu. This option is only available if the main Menubar is enabled

Select View Mode from the Control menu. This option is only available when the main Menubar is disabled

By selecting the appropriate icon from the main toolbar, if it is enabled

Using the default keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl+1 switches to the Icon display mode,

Ctrl+2 switches to Compact and,

Ctrl+3 switches to Detailed view.

View as Icons

Each file and each folder is represented by an icon in this mode. Alternatively a preview, or of the file can be displayed. Instead of displaying an icon a preview of the file can be shown. This feature can be turned on/off via the menu View -> Preview (if menu bar is enabled) or via the main toolbar button Preview.

There is the possibility to display additional information below the icons. These can be turned on/off via Control -> Additional Information or View -> Additional Information (if menu bar is enabled). In principal the same criteria which are available as search criteria can be selected.

You can group the icons to achieve a better overview. This is turned on via Control -> Show in Groups or View -> Show in Groups (if menu bar is enabled). Now the icons are grouped and the groups are divided by a horizontal line containing the name of the group as caption. The grouping is related to the selected search criteria.

細節

Since KDE 4.1 it is possible to display the folders as a tree. In this mode a plus sign is shown next to the folder. Plus sign has been replaced by > symbol in newer KDE versions. By clicking on this sign the folder is expanded and all containing sub folders and files are also shown in the table but they are attenuated. By clicking the sign, which displays a minus now (or an arrow pointing downwards in latest versions), again the expansion is closed again. Of course the tree structure can be used for as many folders as wished. In latest KDE releases, the tree view is enabled by default, but can be deactivated via Control -> Configure Dolphin -> View Modes -> Details with option Expandable Folders.

分列

View mode "Columns" was inspired by the file manager Finder of Mac OS X. Entering a sub folder did not replace the current folder view but the content of the sub folder was listed in an additional column next to the column of the parent folder. This could be used for several hierarchies, so that you could navigate in an easy and fast way in the file system. Since KDE 4.8, view mode "Columns" has been dropped and will not be available in future Dolphin releases.

Setting defaults for all folders

Under Control -> Adjust View Properties (or under the menu item View -> Adjust View Properties if you have enabled menu bar) you can set any of these attributes to be the default for all folder views.

面板

Dolphin contains several panels, which can be activated via menu Control -> Panels. Each panel can be placed in the left or right docking area. To move a panel you have to unlock panels (right clik on a panel and select Unlock Panels), click on the header and Drag&Drop the panel. The area where the panel will be placed on mouse released is highlighted. It is possible to stack panels on top of each other. In this case the panels are placed into tabs.

地址

Dolphin contains a new kind of bookmarks Places. These are displayed in a panel which can be activated via Control -> Panels -> Places (keyboard shortcut F9). The default Places are identical to the ones shown in the category Computer of the K-Menu Kickoff.

点击地址中一个，他就会在当前文件夹视图内打开。右键关联菜单能够编辑「地址」或再次删除它们。同样能临时隐藏个别的条目。

檔夾的關聯菜單能用來添加這個檔夾作為一個條目到「地址」面板，有個菜單項是添加到地址。你也能拖放一個檔夾到「地址」面板。

地址面板也包含了鏈接到可移動設備比如USB-keys或CD的條目。如果設備被掛載會顯示一個小的「插頭圖示指示」。關聯菜單能夠卸載這個設備。

「地址」被使用作為「麵包屑導航欄」中的基礎，導航欄中顯示的地址，起點就是「地址」中與其有關的最近的父檔夾。

資訊

The information panel can be activated via Control -> Panels -> Information (keyboard shortcut F11). This panel displays a preview or an icon of the currently selected file/folder or of the file/folder below the mouse cursor. Some additional information like change date or size to the file/folder is displayed as well.

檔案夾

A panel providing a tree structure for the file system can be displayed via Control -> Panels -> Folders (keyboard shortcut F7). The tree structure offers the possibility by clicking the > and ˇ signs to expand/collapse sub folders. By clicking on one of the folders the content will be displayed in the current view.

終端

The terminal emulator Konsole can be displayed directly in Dolphin via Control -> Panels -> Terminal (keyboard shortcut F4). This makes it possible to use shell commands directly in Dolphin. The terminal is opened in the folder which is displayed in the current view. Shift + F4 opens Konsole in new window.

帶終端的 Dolphin

File System Navigation

Bookmarks and Places

In KDE3 you could create bookmarks in Konqueror, but they were not available to any other application. KDE SC 4.x opens up a great deal more flexibility - but that inevitably means more complication. In fact KDE SC 4 has three classes of Bookmarks, which need to be differentiated. They reside in different files, and have different functions.

KDE3 Konqueror didn't share bookmarks

Three kinds of bookmark

First, there is the set of bookmarks available only to Konqueror - web bookmarks. These are stored in ~/.local/share/konqueror/bookmarks.xml. Then there is a set which Dolphin calls Places. This set is available to all applications as well as the Dolphin file manager. Every time you use File -> Open you will see this set. The third set of bookmarks are Application Bookmarks. These share one file, regardless of the application that set them, and are available to all applications, unless you restrain them to a specific application. More of that later.

Enable bookmarks

Bookmarks are not enabled in dialogs by default. To enable them

Open the File menu and select Open or Save

Click the Options icon

Select Show Bookmarks

Enabling Bookmarks

"Places" for system-wide navigation

There is a default set of Places -

Home

Network

Root

Trash

but you can add other places. In Dolphin, right-click on a folder and select Add to Places, or just drag a folder onto Places.

Adding a bookmark to Places

By default this "Place" will be visible in all applications. If you want to keep it constrained to Dolphin, you need to right-click on the new name in the Places list, where you will find the option to Edit it. There is a check-box for Only show when using this application (Dolphin).

This Place will only be visible in Dolphin

You can see the result of that command if you read ~/.kde4/share/apps/kfileplaces/bookmarks.xml.

In some applications too there is an option in the File menu to add a folder to Places. At this stage, however, applications vary in which features are available. The important thing to remember is that the default is for Places items to be available to all applications in the File -> Open dialogue.

Bookmarks in applications

This is the second class of bookmarks. Remember opening File -> Open and using the spanner/wrench? Next to it is a yellow star. This is the bookmark management menu.

Manage Application bookmarks here

Here you can define bookmarks that will be visible in the same menu on any application. They are stored in one file, ~/.local/share/kfile/bookmarks.xml, which is used by all applications having that menu.

Constraining to one application

Some applications allow you to edit items in the Places menu. For instance, if in Gwenview you right click on a folder in Places you can set an option to Only show when using this application (Gwenview).

Constraining a bookmark to an application

If you need to constrain to an application that does not yet allow you to do that, the only way left is to edit the file ~/.local/share/kfile/bookmarks.xml. Immediately before the </metadata> tag you will need to add the line

<OnlyInApp>appname</OnlyInApp>

Archive Management in Dolphin

Managing archives now becomes simple. In any directory in Dolphin, highlight the files that you want to compress, and right-click. Here, using the Compress option, you can elect to create a RAR archive, a Gzipped tar archive, or define another compression mode that you have already set up.

Create a new archive

Similarly, if you right-click on an existing archived file you get a range of actions added to the right-click menu. You can extract the archive to the current folder, to an autodetected subfolder or to another place of your choosing.

Should you wish to add files to an existing archive, you can choose Open with Ark.

Manage existing archives

More Cool Actions

Change a File Association on-the-fly

Have you ever wanted to open a file, only to find that it is associated with an application that is not of your choice?

You can, for one, alter this in Kickoff -> Computer -> System Settings -> Common Appearance and Behavior -> File Associations . This is the same as running kcmshell5 filetypes in a Konsole.

Alternatively, if you want to change multiple associations right quick, you would edit the *.desktop file directly, e.g. the file /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Builder.desktop . For example, Gnome Builder associates with a great number of file-types which may not be desirable. So the line

MimeType=application/javascript; # we do not want all of these ....

may be shortened or commented out with # . Maybe a line

InitialPreference=2
X-KDE-InitialPreference=3

in the builder.desktop file helps to keep your previous default associated app, with builder being only secondary or tertiary option.

Thirdly, Dolphin and Konqueror offer a quick method for changing a single association:

Right-click on the file and select Properties. The first line there is descriptive, something like:

Type: XML document

At the same level, on the right, there is a spanner (wrench). Click on that and you can add or change an association.

Similarly, by working on a folder, you can change the default file manager to/from Konqueror, if you choose, or add another image browser to the possible associations.

The Actions sub-menu

The Actions sub-menu opens up a whole lot more cool things to do from Dolphin. Some possibilities only appear when applicable to the file you have selected. An apps .desktop file below /usr/share/applications defines what actions are applicable for a particular type of file. Some of the options are

You then just have to copy the folder of your choice, in your preferred format to obtain the relative encoded version of your CD!

timeline:/ and have your recent files as startup folder

Have your recent files always in Dolphin

In a current (2017, Version 16.08.3 of) dolphin (with baloo up and running), you can start up dolphin with a view of recently modified files: Just navigate to the address/location of timeline:/today/ (copy paste it to the address bar) or use it as dolphin start-up-folder in dolphin-settings. With older versions of dolphin, this required the below manual steps:

One particularly neat thing there is the ability to have the Today folder from the timeline:/ protocol in the Places sidebar (you can just drag it there!). You can then change the name and icon (do a right click on the new Today entry and choose Edit entry Today...).

It could be very useful to have this view of recently used files immediately when you start Dolphin. Unfortunately, as of Dolphin 2.1 (part of KDE SC 4.9) this is not possible without editing the Dolphin configuration file. See this blog for more details on that.

To edit the configuration file, first close all Dolphin windows. Dolphin will save its configuration upon closing, overwriting any changes you might make!

Then use KRunner (Alt + F2) to edit ~/.config/dolphinrc with KWrite as follows: kwrite ~/.config/dolphinrc. You can of course use any other editor as well, like Kate. In the configuration file, locate the [General] section to edit the HomeUrl into: HomeUrl=timeline:/today and save the file. You should now have the today view as default and have the files you're most often looking for at your fingertips!